AUTOS: More & Cheaper Cars

Ford brought out its 1959 Edsel this week with
a face lifting, but it carefully redesigned the whole selling pitch for
its one-year-old youngster. Instead of competing with medium-priced
cars, as originally planned, Edsel is now aimed at the low-priced
buyer. Ford switched Edsel's price range from last year's $2,300-$3,489
to $2,320-$2,807 by dropping two of last year's higher-priced models
(the Citation and the Pacer), thus bringing Edsel down into the price
range of the top series of the Big Three's lowest-priced cars. Also
slashed: accessories prices, e.g., $175 for automatic transmission v.
last year's $215. In line with the...